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College defensive line tandems receive friendly welcome at NFL's scouting combine

[February 27, 2025] By MICHAEL MAROT

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant spent three seasons trading jabs, challenging one another for the title of best Michigan defensive tackle.

The competition propelled both into All-Americans and top NFL draft prospects.

And now that they’ve made it here, among the 329 invitees to the league’s annual scouting combine, their friendly rivalry has been put on hold.

They have bigger dreams to chase these days.

“We always talk smack and challenge each other,” Grant said Wednesday, the first day players at the major offseason event spoke with reporters. “But we have different games. I tried to learn from him, he tried learning from me, so it's a friendly competitiveness.”

Graham and Grant could both be high draft picks, maybe even the first players at their position called during April's NFL draft. Should things fall right after teaming up to bring the Wolverines the 2023 national championship, this duo could be part of another major feat — the first Michigan draft class with four first-round picks.

Perhaps that's why they've ditched the playful banter this week.

But Graham and Grant aren't the only friendly rivals roaming the hallways in Indianapolis — not by a long shot.

Ohio State defensive ends JT Tuimoloau and Jack Sawyer, have become draft workout partners in California, and are rooming together once again this time as national champs.

Texas A&M defensive end Nic Scourton, who played previously at Purdue, is helping another Aggies defensive end, Shemar Stewart, navigate the city. Notre Dame defensive tackles Howard Cross III and Rylie Mills are hanging out together, giving the combine an unusually high mix of tag-team college defensive line tandems.

“It’s funny,” said Sawyer, who also roomed with Tuimoloau at Ohio State. “We got told our roommates here could be random. I checked in first. The bags didn’t have names on ’em, so I had no idea who it was. Here comes JT walking down the hallway, so we started laughing. It’s good to be rooming with him again. It’s been fun.”

But this week is about getting down to business.

The defensive linemen and linebackers have spent the past couple of nights doing interviews with teams and will conduct on-field workouts Thursday. While most fans want to see how former Penn State star Abdul Carter, the top-rated edge rusher, or former Georgia linebacker Jalon Walker perform, the college teammates will compete against one another for draft position.

Some consider Stewart and Scourton, for instance, the top two defensive ends after Carter. Scourton had 15 sacks over the past two seasons while Stewart provided a pass rusher on the opposite side. They were a perfect pairing, learning how to feed off one another.

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Michigan defensive lineman Mason Graham speaks during a press conference at the NFL football scouting combine in Indianapolis, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

“He brought the competitive energy every day and I wanted to go out there every day at practice. That's kind of how our dynamic was," Scourton said. “It's amazing to be here with him. It's a great experience to come out here with my guys and be able to live out our dreams.”

The dreams of Cross and Mills have taken a somewhat different turn since finishing as the national runner-up with the Fighting Irish this past season.

Cross, whose father was a Super Bowl-winning tight end with the New York Giants, opened the 2024 season as a second-team preseason All-American. But he missed six weeks with a sprained left ankle, returning for the school's playoff run — only to see Mills suffer a season-ending torn anterior cruciate ligament in Notre Dame's first-round victory over Indiana.

So as Cross tries to rebuild his draft stock at the combine, Mills is relying on his game tape to convince scouts what he's capable of doing when healthy.

“My leg is strong, I’m walking around, I’m just lucky to be in this position. The good part is I can kind of go back and show them the player I was,” Mills said. "Look, I know I’m rehabbing right now, but if you just look at the level of play you’re going to get, it’s going to be fresh legs.”

Cross is rooting for him.

And so are the other teammates, who have used their personal competitions to put them on the brink of a pro career and find themselves both working hard and cheering for one another.

“Every day in practice, we were just trying to one up each other, who can do the best stuff, who has more passion. It was a friendly competition,” Graham said, referring to Grant. “Honestly, we like competing against each other because we feel like we're two of the best.”

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